A Russian company allegedly linked to the Kremlin targeted Mississippi before and after the 2016 presidential election, purposely dumping divisive advertisements to Facebook to sow discord among voters, recent reporting suggests.

Some 3,400 Russian-linked Facebook advertisements were targeted at 12 states that included Republican strongholds in the South, including Mississippi, Texas and Alabama, according to a NBC News report. The ads also appeared in Democratic strongholds of Wisconsin and Michigan, which defied most predictions and flipped for President Donald Trump in the presidential election.

The ads were linked to 470 fake accounts that trace back to a Russian company called the Internet Research Agency that "is known for using troll accounts to post on social media and comment on news websites," according to the New York Times.

Facebook's chief security officer, Alex Stamos, wrote in a blog post: "In reviewing the ads buys, we have found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies. Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia."

While the ads did not specify a candidate, they "appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights," Stamos said.

President Donald Trump won Mississippi convincingly with 57.9 percent of the vote compared to 40.1 percent for Hillary Clinton, leaving reasons why Russia included Mississippi among the targeted states unclear.

Two weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security contacted all 50 secretary of state offices in the nation to confirm if their election systems had been targeted by "Russian government actors." Mississippi was not among the 21 targeted states, according to the Secretary of State's office.

However, politically related advertisements on Facebook and social media sites are outside the secretary of state's domain, as are federal elections such as the presidential election.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed reports of Russian interference, despite the conclusion of American intelligence agencies in January that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election in an effort to skew the vote in his favor.

Facebook estimates the entire Russian effort was seen by 10 million people.